1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for producing spherical particles or fibers with a specially fixed size from a melt of metal, flux, or slag. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for producing spherical particles or fibers with a specially fixed size, by forming thin film streams of a melt of metals, metallurigical slags, or fluxes on a flat rotating disk, and projecting the thin film streams into space at a high speed from the periphery of the disk.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of processes have been proposed heretofore for producing roughly spherical particles or round sectioned fibers by pouring a melt onto the surface of rotating bodies. Most of the prior art processes and apparatuses can be classified into two categories in accordance with the type of melts. One is the production of spherical or globular particles from metallic melts and another is the production of fibers from easily vitrifiable non-metallic melts.
One example of such prior processes was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,544, which relates to a process and an apparatus for producing globular particles of ferroalloys. The aforesaid U.S. patent used a rotary drum with a downwardly convex bottom surface around a central opening and a rotary anvil having a conical center projection and an upwardly concave upper surface extending radially from said projection; said anvil is concentrically set below said drum and the gap between said convex and concave surface is maintained at fixed dimensions; said anvil is rotated in the opposite direction to that of said drum; molten metal, being poured onto said conical center projection of the anvil through said opening of the drum, is granulated during passing through said gap between said convex and concave surfaces, and the granules thus formed exit from the periphery of said anvil to drop into water.
The aforesaid example of the prior art has such defects that internal liquid friction and intense cooling effect inevitably cause random split of the molten metal stream when the melt is passing through the gap between the two curved surfaces rotating in mutually opposite directions. Therefore, uniform shape and size of the particles cannot be obtained.